The holidays have pounced!

On Sunday morning I came, suddenly, to the realization that advent has begun and the time between now and Christmas is shorter than I expect it to be.  This never happened when I was five years old.  John and I are at that age when we have ventured out into the world on our own, but have yet to host the Christmas festivities.  We alternate between our families, resulting in the fact that we have never decorated any of our apartments for Christmas.  This year, that all changes.  Although we are not hosting a huge Christmas party, my mother is coming for the holiday, and we will not have the opportunity to enjoy someone else's decoration labors.  This age also means we will not be in our current place for more than one Christmas, so accumulating expensive decorations does not seem reasonable.  To this end, I am decorating this year hand made for the most part.  I considered a paper tree like this one:

from Curbly.
But ultimately I was convinced to go with a more traditional artificial tree when I saw they were on clearance at JoAnn fabric.  While it has not yet been delivered, I have been furiously making ornaments so that when it arrives, I am ready.  My patience was challenged by waiting for shipping, and in the meantime I have been making other holiday accents for our home.  For example, I made these throw pillow covers for our couch.

These are really nice because they are small and easily packed away until next year but they make a big impact.  I also threw together a tablecloth and napkins from fabrics I already had.  I think they make the table much more festive without much labor, as I just hemmed up the edges.